Arkansas Tornadoes

Hi all.  I have been getting a lot of emails and texts to make sure that we are all okay.  We are fine - nothing happened in our little corner of the state at all.  We were in Tornado Warnings all day Sunday, but about 10:30 Sunday night we had about a ten minute hard rainstorm with lots of hail.  But, that was it.  Lara and I were texting each other back and forth during it all.  It seems that I am about seven minutes ahead of her in the world of weather, so when I would say the rain was starting, about seven minutes late it would start raining at her house.  Luckily, it was all short lived and not bad at all.

But, a bit down South near Little Rock the towns of Mayflower and Vilonia were nearly wiped out.  I have a friend from high school that lives in Mayflower and works in Vilonia, so I was worried about him.  He posted about 12:30 that night that his family was okay.  The town is a wreck though.  Tornadoes are suck a terrible thing.  They come in fast and leave fast and kill and destroy in such a short time.  This morning they released a video of the names and ages of the deceased and it is just heart breaking.

Thank you for checking on me and worrying about us.  I really have such a wonderful family of friends on here and it really means the world to me!

Fun Friday Finds

The Breadman came straight home from work and took a nap and The Bean was resting on the couch, so I announced I was going to the booth for a bit.  I ended up being gone about four hours! I went to several yard sales and found Lara at my booth (!) so we shopped around a bit at my store and at her store.  Plus I did take in a bunch of new things and reworked the booth.  I thought there would be a lot of yard sales, but there weren't that many.  Tomorrow looks like there will be a LOT, but not sure if I will go or not.  I'm saving up for next weekend  - NWA Largest Yard Sale.

 I just found a few tings, but sometimes that is just the little bit of a high that you need to get through the day.  I also bought a vintage metal medicine cabinet with a mirror that I cleaned up and put straight in the booth.  

 I was shocked to find that neat old ribbed metal Thermos at a sale in the middle of the afternoon.  And it was only FIFTY CENTS.  Score!  The old Baby Doll hangers were at the Flea Market.  

I paid more for those than I would have at a yard sale, but I just could NOT leave them behind.  SO CUTE.  I might, and when I say "might" I mean I don't want to, but I might sell one set.  [I DON'T THINK I CAN DO IT.]

This old crock was only 25¢.  I have no idea what it is or was, but any old piece of crockery is coming to my house when it is a quarter.  It will end up at the booth or the Farm Fresh Sale.  

These frames aren't anything special, except for the fact that I got thirty of them for $2.00!  I've been cutting apart an old set of Children's Encyclopedia's (they are musty and worn and not in any condition to sell as a set), so I think I will put some of the cute old graphics in these frames.  The opening is only about 3" square.  I framed a picture of a frog and I might add old game piece letters that say "FROG" on it.  Maybe?  

The last yard sale that I went to had nothing that interested me and I was ready to leave, but the traffic was lined up because a big bicycle race was coming through.  So, I just kept walking around and digging under things on the tables.  I spied fringe so I pulled out this adorable little boy's vintage Western shirt.  Isn't it just TOO cute?  I also bought to little boy's 1980's IZOD sweaters and two sets of Hulk Hogan PJ's from the 1980's.  (The sweaters and PJ's are in the washer, so no photos.  Sorry!)  I don't usually buy clothes, but vintage kid's clothes = awesome!  

I hope the sales have started up for you too!

Heartless

Both the menfolk are sick at my house.

The Breadman has either allergies or a cold.

Or it might just be a bad case of MAN FLU.

Ain't it the truth?

FORGIVE ME FOR THE LANGUAGE BUT IT IS JUST TOO FUNNY.

Knocks him out for three days.......I could handle that.

The Bean has a headache and I do have sympathy for that.  Headaches hurt.  

Colds suck too, I know that.  

I'm not completely heartless.

Well, maybe just a little.

Somebody get me outta this house!  

Craptastic Crafts

We've all seen craptastic crafts at yard sales and thrift stores.  Crafts that were "hot" for a few years like macrame and those crocheted beer can hats.  Some of them go in and out of style, like the macrame.  Others will never be in style, like ever - like the the beer can hat.  

Back in the 80's I got into cross stitch.  But, I didn't like those patterns with the forty five shades of green to make the grass with the nine hundred tulips on the borders.  Usually I just made up my designs. Since it was the 80's a lot of my designs included DUCKS and GEESE and other country items.  Eh gads.  

This is the only cross stitch I still have left from back then. It's not on the wall - I swear.   It's dated 1989, which I SUPPOSE makes it vintage.  Eh gads again.  How country cliche is this?  

The true vintage lover in me says, "This has GOT TO GO!" But the person that made it all those years ago thinks she needs to keep it.  

Plus, I am SURE that Country Geese will be all the rage one of these days soon.

AM I RIGHT?

Do you have nay craptastic crafts hiding in your closet?

It's Easter!

Happy Easter to all my friends!  

I hope your day is full of bunnies made of chocolate and beans made of jelly!

Here are the last of my decorations.  Now it's time to pack them away.  :(

My Easter feather tree with so many fun things on it  - I love all the things people have made for me and gifted to me.  The Annalee bunny was the first gift that Heidi sent me and I smile every time I see it!  that HUGE bunny is just way to big for me to really display, but I got it for Easter when I was six years old.  He's nearly as tall as me!  

The "Hop to it" sign was on the front door, but I decided I liked seeing it all the time and not just when I came and went.  

I DEFY YOU NOT TO SMILE.

An old egg dye box has been on my wishlist forever.  I finally resorted to ebay where I found TWO egg dye boxes.  They also came with five vintage egg boxes and when I looked in one of the boxes, it had a bunch of spun cotton chicks, a glass egg and that egg bank I shared a few days ago.  What a deal !

Easter is the only time when my big mess of beautiful pastel pottery looks like it belongs in the living room.  It's a jumbled up pile of pottery - but it makes me SO happy!

Happy Easter to all of YOU!

Easter is tomorrow!

Since I fill up my original sets every holiday, I had to buy this set when I spotted them at a yard sale.

Bunnies!

These bunnies are not vintage, but they look like CHOCOLATE so who is going to NOT put them out?

The egg box is new this year.

Flocked bunny banks.  Every year I tell the same story about the bunny banks that we found at The Breadman's mothers house.  And how we had them in a box to come home with me - all like thirty of them in every color, size and pose.  And how a helpful person decided they were JUNK and took them to the Salvation Army.  But, I won't tell that story today.  *Grumble!*

More CHOCOLATE!

I love putting things in this old clock case.

I almost donated these yarn bunnies.  

Then I saw the vintage millinery flowers and the GINGHAM and came to my senses.  

Whew!

Old baby toys and candy containers.

Tomorrow is the day!  

Do you have your jelly beans bought and your baskets filled?

Easter is in TWO days!

More!

The top of my craft hutch.  Chalkware bunnies and German Eggs.  

The chalkware bunnies are all recasts and not vintage.  But they are vintage recasts.  Huh?  I kept finding those pin and bead eggs, so now I seen to have a small collection of them.  

This is a big vintage Easter basket and it is full of old German eggs, a Steiff bunny and some other vintage stuffies.  The background is the top off an old baby table.  

I've been picking up those eggs for years, but I had a good find of about ten all at once at the thrift not long ago.  That was a GOOD day!

This sweet little bunny is one of my absolute favorite belongings.  She is just lovely.

Because time is short and I have plenty to show - here is my little hutch.  

I have had so much fun making the tiny hutch look like it's big hutch with all my small things.  I found those Annlaee bunnies in the FREE toy bin at the thrift many years ago.  I made the bunny slippers because.....well, why not?

The Bean's first Easter Bunny in front of my chalkboard.  

No, my chalk writing skills are not very Pinterest worthy!

More to come!

Easter is in THREE Days!

Lots of bunnies and chicks in this post!

This is in the front window.  A little vignette of fun.

It's no surprise that I like little things.  And lots of them.

BAM!  Little stuff.  And lots of it!

I sat in the floor one day while I watched "Ellen" and added things to this old spice rack.  

I filled it UP!

It was sort of low, so I put it on a pink tin to give it a bit more height.

I defy anyone not to smile when they look at a chenille chick.  

It is just NOT possible!

Everyday I turn it a hair so there is always something new to see.

And, just for fun - here is my Rushton Bunny 'Peeka and her new buddy the duck I found last weekend.  

More tomorrow!

Easter is in FOUR Days!

I just realized that I haven't shared any of my Easter decorations this year.  I didn't think I would ever get it all up and now, it's practically time to pack it away.  :(  My love affair with bunnies is deep.  I have collected them since I had my college apartment.  I don't really collect them anymore except for vintage ones.  Every year I cull out some more items and condense my collection down.  But, when you've had something for thirty years, you are attached to it! I have a narrow shelf in my hallway that houses the ones that I consider to be my bunny collection year round.  Some of them come out to the living room for Easter then hop back to the shelf for the rest of the year.  

Today I'll share the white shelves.  I think these shelves are the best five dollars I ever spent at a garage sale. 

 Some of my favorite collections are usually housed on this shelf.  This is no exception!

 The pink bunny in the center and the white one on the right stay out all year long.  The little pink/yellow egg is a little bank that I found this year.

The yellow/purple bunny stays out too.  Love all the little tins that I have collected over the years too.

Years ago, before I was really into vintage, I went to an Estate Sale where the lady had been a teacher for about fifty years.  There was a room chock full of all of her teaching things including piles of Dick and Jane Books and boxes of the old Dick and Jane flash cards.  I bought one box of old greeting cards and procured those sweet flocked ducky cards from there.  Oh, how I wish I would have bought all the stuff in that room!

I'll be back tomorrow with some more!

A New Old Cabinet

I had a few errands to run today and when I run errands I usually manage to squeeze a thrift store visit in there somehow.  It's not that difficult.  :)

On the way to the thrift, our low tire pressure light came on, so we stopped for some air.  While The Bean was airing up the tire, I decided to check Instagram because I AM ADDICTED.  I scrolled down a couple of posts and saw that Lara was posting photos from the thrift.  I texted if she was still there and she was - I texted her that I would be there in five minutes.  When I walked up to her, she was just sending a text to me that said, "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA" because she thought I was kidding!

She had posted a photo of this old hardware cabinet.

It had a wonderful old turquoise formica top on it, all those graduated cubbies and the nine drawers.  Well, make that eight drawers and one hole.  Lara loved it and debated it, but ended up leaving without it.  I went out to look at it some more and decided that I might buy it.  I looked it over and decided I NEEDED it, so I went in a paid for it.  It is huge, very heavy and has a ton of character.  Most of the drawers are divided into sections inside and have different hardware labels like "screws" and "fittings".  The cubby on the far left is only about six inches deep and the cubby on the right is about 18" deep.  

After I paid for it and made arrangements with The Breadman to pick it up in a couple of hours - I had HUGE, HUGE pangs of guilt for buying it.  Lara had left to feed the kids, but had come back in just as I was leaving.  As I drove down the road I thought, what if she came back for the cabinet and here I went and BOUGHT it out from under her.  Shoot, I finally get a friend and I BLOW IT.  I texted her and she SWEARS that she had passed on it.  She SWEARS that she is happy that I bought it.  Still, I feel a big guilty.  

Having said that.......

Don't you just love it?  It's all chippy and worn in just the right places for years and years of use.  It needs a good cleaning - but not TOO much of a cleaning.  I rearranged the drawers so that the empty spot is in the middle of the middle row, so it is all symmetrical.  I'm going to find either a basket or an old box to put in there so it will be useful too.  Won't it be great for USPS boxes, bubble wrap, packing supplies and craft supplies?  

Oh, I almost forgot - it was $20.00!  What a deal!

*Thank you and I am sorry Lara!*

**I even stole this photo from her Instagram!**

Thelma and Louise Go Junking

Wednesday I dropped the boys off to see Captain America and I headed out ALL BY MYSELF!  The plan was to go to a couple yard sales, Hobby Lobby, Joanne's and a few other places.  I went to the big thrift first.  There have been a lot of changes there - most NOT to my liking.  They take the donations off somewhere to be "processed" and then they bring them back to the store to be stocked.  When this first started, the amount of items coming in was very low and the shelves were empty.  And, what was there was just stuff - Dollar Store stuff, kitchen stuff, Wal-Mart stuff - stuff.  Not cool vintage stuff.  But, when I got there Wednesday, the place was stuffed full of stuff.  GOOD STUFF, Old Stuff, stuff with character.  I found something on a rack that I though Lara might like, so I texted her a photo of it.  I told her they had a lot of stuff and before you know it, she was in the car headed that way!  When I walked up ront to meet her, she was holding two things in her hand that I had already seen and KNEW she would like.  We spent about 45 minutes looking at things, buying things and persuading each other to buy things.  Because you know we wouldn't have bought stuff on our own.  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

The first thing I spotted in the back of a shelf was this OH SO SWEET wall pocket.It was only $1.99, so it went straight into my basket.  Later, when Lara saw it, she looked it over closely and deemed it, "Adorable."  When I got home, I noticed that the tip of the wing on one of the birds was snapped off, but if I didn't notice and she didn't notice, then who cares.  It is going on the wall and will hold my phone while it charges.  

The second thing was this very sweet toadstool planter. It doesn't look too sweet in this photo, but I assure you - sweet it is. I have to others like this with gnomes on them.  

This Georgia Bulldog bank caught my eye since it's vintage.  I don't enjoy sporting events, but I will sell those sports fan vintage memorabilia ALL DAY LONG. There is one on ebay for $125.00 now which is CRAY-CRAY.  They'll never sell if for that, but if by chance they do - I'll be listing mine for that too!  

On my last walk through I spotted this nice piece of Nemadji pottery in the back of a shelf.  In the words of Macklemore - IT WAS NINETY NINE CENTS!

I also found this neat wooden thing that looked interesting to me.  When I read the label I discovered it is the front off an old chicken incubator.  Love the sliding peephole to peek in at the eggs/chickens.  The Bean said it would be neat on a front door so you could look through that peephole into the peephole on the door to see outside.  I HAVE RAISED THAT BOY TO APPRECIATE JUNK.  It will go to the Summer Barn Sale. I will probably take it "as is". But, I am trying to think of a way to recreate it into something else.  

I went to the furniture room for a look around even though I don't buy furniture.  But, you never know what you might find.  That's when I spotted an old mail sorter standing in the corner. It is disheveled here at the store, but I will straighten out the shelves and fix her right up. I have a small corner in my booth that no one would imagine that I could ever put anything in - but this will fit perfectly.  I will use it to hold all my paper items - BINGO cards, dictionary page bundles, sheet music, ads, flash cards, etc.  It will take up ZERO space, yet it will hold a TON!  That will open up one of my bigger shelves for more, more, more.  The other vendors are always in amazement of the sheer volume of things I have in my booth - wait until they get a gander at this!  I do have a lot, but it is all up on shelves, off the floor, neat and organized.  

I went up to pay for the sorter before I was finished shopping so they could put a SOLD sign on it.  When I went back to put the sign on it, a volunteer was just sitting down a Redmon Picnic basket.  I GRABBED it so fast.  Swoosh!  It was $6.99 so I stood there debating it and then my senses kicked in and I realized it was a STEAL.  I have been lucky to find most of mine for only a dollar or two.  This is a slightly different color and weave, so it is a welcome addition to my collection.  As I shopped and later after Lara joined me, so many people commented on my basket.  I clutched it to me to keep it safe.  It's MINE, people! *After I paid for it, I looked on the bottom for a sticker and found written in Magic marker - STOUT - which is half of The Breadman's family.  WEIRD.  I told you it was mine!

Lara headed home and I went to the Goodwill up the street even though I said I wasn't.  I had spent enough, but you just don't know what lies in wait until you go have a peek!  So, I peeked!

I found this certificate from the United States Air Forces of Europe from 1958.  it has a bunch of names on it and it is 56 years old, so I bought it for $1.00.  If nothing else, the frame is nice with a velvet insert.  I looked up all those names and most of them went on to be coaches, Olympic Medal winners or Pan American Medalists. I think I will do some more research and put the certificate on ebay.  (The old chippy chalkboard came from the first thrift and was 99¢.

I saw a newer box of jars on the shelf so Looked inside to see if they had lids or not. Not only did they have lids, but they were cute colored rings and lids with holes in them for straws!  A whole dozen for $7.00.  

I recently acquired about 500 new old stock vintage labels (which I need to blog).  I picked out some of the old soda labels that had matching color schemes and used glue adhesive to put them on the fronts.  I added a kicky paper straw to fun.  I think they are sweet - I will take these to the Barn Sale.  

I have been on the lookout for a sugar jar, so I was happy to find tow at the same time.  I added an old Dennison "TWINE" label to the front of each one.  I'm going to dummy up some Bakers twine rolls and put them int here for the Barn Sale.  (I am trying to harness my inner Heidi).

Thursday I spotted an ad for a promising Estate Sale that was a bit too far for me to go, but I sent Lara an email about it.  She threw on her shoes and RAN to the car to the sale.  She's so funny - I'll let her tell the story of that sale.  I had to be a responsible adult and go grocery shopping and errand running. But, Lara called to tell me there was a rumor that Goodwill had a shipment of vintage items.  I was looking out the window of Aldi at Goodwill when she called, so OF COURSE I went.  

I picked up this hand carved bird and this banner which I thought was a troll, but now I think it might be from Hawaii.  I cannot make out the signature to research it.  It looks like someone would want it!

This breadbox was the only vintage thing I found.  Just after I picked it up, Lara walked in.  We both agreed that the breadbox was sort of overpriced at $8.00, but I decided to buy it.  I've never seen a vintage metal breadbox in all my journey's.  I was thinking that I might plant it full of red flowers and take it to the Barn Sale.  I think it would be fun on a porch.  

Okay, are you still with me?  I am long winded tonight!

Today was Friday and I headed out to straighten up the booth for the weekend.  Lara texted that she was heading out that way too.  After I straighted up my booth, I headed over to her store to have a look around. 

I cam across a booth that had little Ziploc bags with treasures in them - 25¢ each for all these wonderful little treasures.  

THAT BUNNY!

*swoon*  

Then, I looked up into the same booth and spotted this:

A rubber faced duck!  I held my breath thinking it would be expensive.  

THREE DOLLARS.

*mine!*

After I shopped around with Lara and met a few Instagram friends that I had never met, I headed home. 

But, you know me - I found a garage sale.  :) 

This old tablecloth has feedsack flowers on it.  It's really sweet - the sun was hitting hard when I took these last photos, so they aren't the best.  

I got the old wooden box, old spice rack, a flattened spoon hook, the little printers box (I think it might be for thimbles(?), a brass Pentax camera belt buckle, a glass gallon jar and a Toy Story Woody hat* (not pictured) all for $5.00.  I picked the cultery box and a long red metal shelf (not pictured) from the trash pile at the sale.  *The Woody replacement hat sells for about $17.00 on ebay, FYI).

 And, as if that is NOT enough - on the way home, I spotted some rusty gold lying in the center median of the highway.  So, I circled back around, parked in the middle of the highway and grabbed it.  

It is an old metal oil can - a huge one at that.  The bottom is rusted out, which to me makes it look like a bell. I have the grandiose idea that I am going to make it into a HUGE cowbell.  We'll see about that.

I told Lara that I planned on staying home this weekend.  I need to do some projects in and out of the house. She said, "But - it's SATURDAY!"  So, we'll see about that too, I suppose......:)